Act now on mis-sold endowments: new article

dunstonh

Yes you can go straight to the FOS in certain cvases i did it that way and claimed back over £6000 in a PPI case just over 2 months ago!

No you cannot. All the FOS do is send a third party interpretation of your phone call to the company you are complaining about (or forward the letter on if you do it that way). The FOS do not get involved at that stage. You just delay the process.

magpiecottage

Sirlaughalot wrote: »

Hi Spikeworks,
Tell her to go directly to the financial ombudsman service they will arbitrate between the two of you.

That is incorrect.

You complain to the firm itself first. All FOS will do is pass your complaint on.

Standard life will have 8 weeks to respond.

That is correct but Standard Life will either say the complaint is timebarred (if one of its representatives sold the policy) or refer the complainant to whoever actually did sell it.

Spikeyorks wrote: »

is there any scope under the sex-discrimination act because, and she isn't proud of this, all the financial decisions were made by the "men" and her priority was to bring up her children and try and keep a roof over her head.

No - with equal rights come equal responsibilities - including the responsibility for understanding what you are signing up to.

katsclaws

Can someone please tell me if the shortfall on endowment policies only applies to the amount that is set against the mortgage. We have 4 policies taken out between 1981 and 1988. We expected the total payouts to be around £120,000. The actual amounts are £64,000. The sums assured against the mortgage are £45741.

dunstonh

katsclaws wrote: »

Can someone please tell me if the shortfall on endowment policies only applies to the amount that is set against the mortgage. We have 4 policies taken out between 1981 and 1988. We expected the total payouts to be around £120,000. The actual amounts are £64,000. The sums assured against the mortgage are £45741.

The endowment and the mortgage are two different things. There is no amount set against the mortgage. On the one hand you have the balance of the mortgage and on the other you have the value of the endowment.

From your figures, the sum assured of £45741 was the target amount. So, the actual amount of £64k indicates a surplus. Not a shortfall.

katsclaws

Thanks dunstonh. I thought when policies were assigned this meant that they were set against the mortgage. For example all our endowment policies totalled together for basic sum assured covered the exact amount of the endowment mortgage. Our last endowment policy matures at the end of this month and is £20000 approx against £28000 expected. Our mortgate was paid off a few years ago.

dunstonh

katsclaws wrote: »

Thanks dunstonh. I thought when policies were assigned this meant that they were set against the mortgage. For example all our endowment policies totalled together for basic sum assured covered the exact amount of the endowment mortgage. Our last endowment policy matures at the end of this month and is £20000 approx against £28000 expected. Our mortgate was paid off a few years ago.

Lenders havent required assignment since the mid 90s. It is worth applying to get the assignment removed as it can be a slow process with some.

If the endowment basic sum assured met the mortgage then that is playing it safe. You were effectively guaranteed to at least have enough to clear the mortgage amount as you could get back less than that basic sum assured. The higher sum assured was never a guaranteed level unless you died.

As you no longer have the mortgage, start work on making sure the assignment is removed now. It has been known to hold up some maturity proceeds for years (although a couple of months is more typical)

katsclaws

dunston h,Thank you for this information.

don_kedik

Looking into a mis sold endowment and advice says contact who sold the endowment plan, but do I contact aviva.
When taking out the endowment of £37 pm for a £12500 mortgage add on, and was told that endowments do well so make it up to £40 as a saving plan which was given a £14500. I've had many letters with amber but have just got a red letter looking like it might not even reach the £12500.


Please advise

dunstonh

Looking into a mis sold endowment and advice says contact who sold the endowment plan, but do I contact aviva.

Only if an Aviva agent sold it to you.

When taking out the endowment of £37 pm for a £12500 mortgage add on, and was told that endowments do well so make it up to £40 as a saving plan which was given a £14500. I've had many letters with amber but have just got a red letter looking like it might not even reach the £12500.

Most endowments are timebarred and Aviva operate a timebar. So, are you timebarred? Aviva will tell you if you are timebarred if you dont know.

magpiecottage

dunstonh wrote: »

Most endowments are timebarred and Aviva operate a timebar. So, are you timebarred? Aviva will tell you if you are timebarred if you dont know.

He won't be if he has just received a red letter.

There are one or two such cases still about but they were some of the last cases to be sold. I had one just over a year ago. The complaint came in during July, I rejected it in mid August. the complainant went to FOS late August, an adjudicator rejected it early September and an Ombudsman finally rejected it early January.

These cases were generally sold under the (much tighter) PIA rules with more detailed information and are far more easily defensible than the earlier ones.